NAME

git-rm - Remove files from the working tree and from the index

SYNOPSIS

  1. git rm [-f | --force] [-n] [-r] [--cached] [--ignore-unmatch] [--quiet] [--] <file>…​

DESCRIPTION

Remove files from the index, or from the working tree and the index.git rm will not remove a file from just your working directory.(There is no option to remove a file only from the working treeand yet keep it in the index; use /bin/rm if you want to do that.)The files being removed have to be identical to the tip of the branch,and no updates to their contents can be staged in the index,though that default behavior can be overridden with the -f option.When —cached is given, the staged content has tomatch either the tip of the branch or the file on disk,allowing the file to be removed from just the index.

OPTIONS

  • …​

  • Files to remove. Fileglobs (e.g. *.c) can be given toremove all matching files. If you want Git to expandfile glob characters, you may need to shell-escape them.A leading directory name(e.g. dir to remove dir/file1 and dir/file2) can begiven to remove all files in the directory, and recursivelyall sub-directories,but this requires the -r option to be explicitly given.

  • -f

  • —force

  • Override the up-to-date check.

  • -n

  • —dry-run

  • Don’t actually remove any file(s). Instead, just showif they exist in the index and would otherwise be removedby the command.

  • -r

  • Allow recursive removal when a leading directory name isgiven.

  • —

  • This option can be used to separate command-line options fromthe list of files, (useful when filenames might be mistakenfor command-line options).

  • —cached

  • Use this option to unstage and remove paths only from the index.Working tree files, whether modified or not, will beleft alone.

  • —ignore-unmatch

  • Exit with a zero status even if no files matched.

  • -q

  • —quiet
  • git rm normally outputs one line (in the form of an rm command)for each file removed. This option suppresses that output.

DISCUSSION

The <file> list given to the command can be exact pathnames,file glob patterns, or leading directory names. The commandremoves only the paths that are known to Git. Giving the name ofa file that you have not told Git about does not remove that file.

File globbing matches across directory boundaries. Thus, giventwo directories d and d2, there is a difference betweenusing git rm 'd' and git rm 'd/', as the former willalso remove all of directory d2.

REMOVING FILES THAT HAVE DISAPPEARED FROM THE FILESYSTEM

There is no option for git rm to remove from the index onlythe paths that have disappeared from the filesystem. However,depending on the use case, there are several ways that can bedone.

Using “git commit -a”

If you intend that your next commit should record all modificationsof tracked files in the working tree and record all removals offiles that have been removed from the working tree with rm(as opposed to git rm), use git commit -a, as it willautomatically notice and record all removals. You can also have asimilar effect without committing by using git add -u.

Using “git add -A”

When accepting a new code drop for a vendor branch, you probablywant to record both the removal of paths and additions of new pathsas well as modifications of existing paths.

Typically you would first remove all tracked files from the workingtree using this command:

  1. git ls-files -z | xargs -0 rm -f

and then untar the new code in the working tree. Alternatelyyou could rsync the changes into the working tree.

After that, the easiest way to record all removals, additions, andmodifications in the working tree is:

  1. git add -A

See git-add[1].

Other ways

If all you really want to do is to remove from the index the filesthat are no longer present in the working tree (perhaps becauseyour working tree is dirty so that you cannot use git commit -a),use the following command:

  1. git diff --name-only --diff-filter=D -z | xargs -0 git rm --cached

SUBMODULES

Only submodules using a gitfile (which means they were clonedwith a Git version 1.7.8 or newer) will be removed from the worktree, as their repository lives inside the .git directory of thesuperproject. If a submodule (or one of those nested inside it)still uses a .git directory, git rm will move the submodulesgit directory into the superprojects git directory to protectthe submodule’s history. If it exists the submodule.<name> sectionin the gitmodules[5] file will also be removed and that filewill be staged (unless —cached or -n are used).

A submodule is considered up to date when the HEAD is the same asrecorded in the index, no tracked files are modified and no untrackedfiles that aren’t ignored are present in the submodules work tree.Ignored files are deemed expendable and won’t stop a submodule’s worktree from being removed.

If you only want to remove the local checkout of a submodule from yourwork tree without committing the removal, use git-submodule[1] deinitinstead. Also see gitsubmodules[7] for details on submodule removal.

EXAMPLES

  • git rm Documentation/*.txt
  • Removes all *.txt files from the index that are under theDocumentation directory and any of its subdirectories.

Note that the asterisk * is quoted from the shell in thisexample; this lets Git, and not the shell, expand the pathnamesof files and subdirectories under the Documentation/ directory.

  • git rm -f git-*.sh
  • Because this example lets the shell expand the asterisk(i.e. you are listing the files explicitly), itdoes not remove subdir/git-foo.sh.

BUGS

Each time a superproject update removes a populated submodule(e.g. when switching between commits before and after the removal) astale submodule checkout will remain in the old location. Removing theold directory is only safe when it uses a gitfile, as otherwise thehistory of the submodule will be deleted too. This step will beobsolete when recursive submodule update has been implemented.

SEE ALSO

git-add[1]

GIT

Part of the git[1] suite